Jennifer Murphy Wins First Prize in Juried Show

The first prize, called the Mayor’s Prize, in the Floyd Gibson Juried Show at Lawrence House Centre for the Arts in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, has been awarded to Jennifer Murphy for her pastel Navajo Nation. She was deeply moved by a trip to the Navajo Nation in Arizona and captured this feeling in her prize-winning work.

Jennifer acknowledges Dr. Kenneth G. Mills’s “impeccable example of unlimited creativity in agreement with an Ideal or Principle.” She teaches and exhibits in her Sarnia studio, Arbutis Grace. Her oil and acrylic paintings have been shown in Ontario and the eastern United States in particular, with solo exhibitions in Tennessee, New York, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jennifer has taught at the Summer Festivals of Light, Sound, and Peace hosted by the Kenneth G. Mills Foundation, as well as at Muskoka Chautauqua in Ontario. She also conceived and taught corporate “Lunch and Learn Art Adventures.”

Jennifer studied under Greg Hindle in Canada and is a member of Canadian Artists’ Representation / Le Front des artistes canadiens (CARFAC). This most recent juried show is named in honour of Floyd Gibson, who is fondly remembered as a teacher, principal, painter, and active supporter of the Lawrence House Centre for the Arts, a community-based, independent, not-for-profit, charitable organization committed to encouraging the creation and appreciation of the visual, performing, and literary arts in Sarnia Lambton, Ontario.

The three jurors — Mary Groombridge, Jane Hunter, and Mary Kilbreath — concurred that “the quality [of this year’s show] was of high calibre. We were most impressed with the colour, the variety of media, and the thought that went into the pieces. … Congratulations to our winners and honourable mentions! Composition, use of materials, originality, and presentation are many things we had to consider.”